Method Acting
by shan21
Summary: Life after Vaughn proves difficult for Annie when Starburns come calling. “You just need to date someone cool to get you back on track. You only dated Vaughn for three weeks. You can still recover.” Guess who fits the bill?
1. Chapter 1

Jeff surveyed the cafeteria briefly before he spotted Abed and Troy. Troy was leaning across the table to gently wipe a few errant spots of ketchup from Abed's chin.

"Whatever," Jeff said with a shrug, and he made his way to their table. He slid into the seat next to Abed, while Pierce, who had just emerged from the lunch line after making a particularly tasteless joke about tacos to the Hispanic lunch lady, took his place next to Troy.

"Where are the girls?" Jeff asked.

"The ladies room," Troy mumbled around a mouthful of chicken patty.

"All at the same time?"

"You know how the womenfolk get, Jeff," Pierce said knowingly.

"Not quite sure what you're getting at, but I'm sure the reality is worse than what I'm imagining so let's not—"

"Their feminine cycles have synched up," Pierce interjected.

"That's disgusting," Troy grumbled, spitting out a mushy lump of chicken patty.

Jeff stared at the brownish lump and grimaced. He looked away, only to find a more disturbing sight.

"That can't be good," he murmured.

The rest of the gang turned to discover the cause of his words. Annie was walking towards them flanked by Shirley and Britta. Annie had two watery lines of mascara running down her cheeks and her eyes were glued to the floor. Shirley and Britta had each taken hold of one of Annie's elbows and were guiding her in their direction.

Jeff felt a peculiar twisting sensation in his gut.

"Plot twist," Abed whispered.

The girls steered Annie to a chair and she immediately fell forward and buried her face in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked.

Shirley and Britta glanced nervously at each other, then at Annie.

"Go ahead. Tell them!" Annie moaned, but because she was basically speaking into the cafeteria table, it sounded more like, 'Gmphhh! Tapffffthmmm!'

After one more anxious glance at Shirley, Britta took a deep breath and spoke.

"Vaughn broke up with her."

Annie sobbed loudly, and Shirley put a comforting hand on her back murmuring, "There, there, baby."

Annie's response was to sob even louder.

When she managed to lift her head, she cried out, "But that's not the worst part! Tell them!"

"What? What did that shirtless vagrant do?!" Jeff demanded. He distantly noted that his cheeks were getting dangerously hot.

"It's not what Vaughn did. It was... Starburns," Shirley finished in a stage whisper.

Jeff, who had been puffed up in rage a moment ago, deflated as a sickening feeling of dread washed over him.

"Oh no," he said.

"Oh, yes," Britta replied. "He asked her out. Offered to be her rebound, in slightly more _colorful_ terms," she added.

Shirley, apparently unable to resist sharing a juicy bit of gossip, proceeded to repeat Starburns's comment.

"He said she could wear his sideburns like legwarmers!"

Anyone with a lunch tray in front of him pushed it away, reflecting on the simpler time before they had heard that repulsive come-on. Troy added to his pile of half-chewed chicken patty.

"We can fix this," Jeff said resolutely.

"How?" Annie asked, briefly lifting her tearstained face to address her friends. "I'm apparently tainted now. Tainted with the stamp of community college weirdo!"

Abed nodded encouragingly.

"Jeff is right. You just need to date someone cool to get you back on track. You only dated Vaughn for three weeks. You can still recover."

Pierce openly scoffed.

"Yeah, but what nice, cool guy at Greendale would be willing to go out with Annie now that she's fodder for the likes of Starburns?"

Whatever hint of a smile might have been edging onto Annie's face disappeared.

"Um, perhaps the more important question to start with is 'What nice, cool guys at Greendale _exist_?'" Britta asked pointedly.

The group emitted a collective, "Hmmm," and paused to consider this inquiry.

All except for Troy, who looked expectantly at them. When he failed to receive the reaction he expected, he loudly cleared his throat. The gang collectively turned to look at him, and he straightened up to give them all the full benefit of his awesome presence.

Britta blew a raspberry and unceremoniously gave him a thumbs-down.

"I'm sorry, Troy, but I doubt that dating a leotard-wearing musophobic is going to up Annie's cool factor," she said matter-of-factly.

Troy's jaw tightened and he pointed an accusatory finger at her.

"First of all, you wore a leotard too. Under a giant water pitcher costume," he charged.

Britta's eyes narrowed and she looked ready to unload on Troy when Abed interjected.

"Huh. Brita Pitcher. Britta pitcher. I just got that. Clever," he said, more to himself than anybody else.

"And B, I am _not_ afraid of moose," Troy continued. Then he paused, frowned, and tried again. "Mooses... Meese?"

Britta smirked.

"Troy, musophobia is fear of mice."

Troy chuckled and adopted a knowing look.

"Don't be ridiculous, Britta. If that was the case they'd call it 'mouse-o-phobia,'" he said slowly, as if explaining this to a small child.

"Annie, did I mention that I'm a wealthy entrepreneur and talented keyboardist?" Pierce interjected, puffing up his chest importantly.

Everyone who wasn't currently involved in a heated debate about mice and moose reeled backwards in dismay.

"Yeah, Pierce. That'd be great if Annie wanted to attract the likes of Leonard, the geriatric macaroni enthusiast who wears a children's backpack," Jeff scoffed.

"Oh, come on! That guy's old enough to be my father!" Pierce cried, throwing up his hands.

"What about Jeff?" Abed asked.

"What _about_ Jeff? Britta demanded, snapping out of her argument with Troy.

"_He's_ cool. He's like our Fonzie," Abed replied.

He squinted at Jeff, as if trying to picture him with a leather jacket and greased back hair.

"Um, he's also not into Annie like that," Britta stated impatiently.

There was a chorus of unconvinced mutterings from the group. Jeff frowned and glanced around at the group. When he caught Britta's eye, she glared back fiercely. Eyes wide, he quickly looked away only to find that no one else would quite meet his gaze. Finally, his eyes swept by Annie and he froze when he realized that she was staring back at him. They both immediately whipped their heads around until they were facing in opposite directions.

"Well, it doesn't have to be for real, does it?" Troy said suddenly.

When everyone fixed him with a quizzical stare, he turned to Annie.

"I mean, people just need to think you're dating Jeff in order to raise your cool factor. You don't have to be in an actual relationship."

Annie wiped the last of the runny mascara from her cheeks and paused to consider this piece of information. If she'd had a notebook readily available, Jeff was certain she'd be taking notes.

"I don't like this," Shirley announced. "'Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.'"

"Please tell me you aren't quoting the Bible," Britta balked.

"I am. Even our Jew—" Annie shot Shirley a look. "—_ISH_ friends can learn something from the lessons of the New Testament. If Annie _does _find a nice boy because of this trick, it will be a love based on deception. She should just be patient. Mr. Right is out there."

"Shirley, the longer Annie waits, the greater her chances are of getting sucked in by Mr. Unbelievably Wrong. Greendale is a horrifying landscape of weirdoes and losers desperate to dement the few Normals roaming campus," Jeff objected.

"Like zombies," Abed offered.

"Exactly," Jeff concurred. "And there's no coming back from zombies."

"Ha! Braaaaaaains," Troy moaned. Abed nodded in approval.

"Jeff has a point. It's tough for us Normals," Pierce asserted.

The others fixed Pierce with incredulous looks, but didn't bother contradicting him.

"Don't you think you're being a little overdramatic, Jeff?" Britta interjected.

"_Am I_?" Jeff asked pointedly.

"_Are you_?" Britta mimicked.

Jeff leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Have you ever wondered how Senor Chang met his wife?"

"He met her at a salsa club. You told us that," Britta replied.

Jeff sighed.

"Chang amended his story during separate drunken sobfest. He let slip that it wasn't so much a salsa club as it was a Greendale dance for the purpose of, and I quote, 'recognizing the contributions of Hispania.'"

He paused to let this sink in.

"Senora Change was a Greendale student?" Shirley gasped.

Jeff nodded, slowly and dramatically.

"Another plot twist!" Abed proclaimed.

"In the real world, a woman like her would never be with a guy like him! Greendale does this to pretty people!" Jeff near shouted.

"You think I'm pretty?" Annie asked.

Jeff refused to meet her eyes, and was saved from having to reply by Troy.

"I knew there was a 'Hispania'! Yeah! Screw you, Wikipedia! You will be gaining a new entry when I get home," he triumphantly declared.

"If Jeff just pretended to be Annie's boyfriend for a while it would rehabilitate her image and save her from the fate of Senora Chang," Abed concluded helpfully.

"Mrs. Annie Starburns," Shirley muttered. Britta shuddered.

"I don't think that would work," Annie said nervously.

"I don't think that would work," Jeff said at the exact same time.

They both turned to frown at each other.

"What?" they asked simultaneously.

Annie decided to explain herself first.

"I just meant because you're so much older than me. It could make guys think that I'm into that sort of thing."

"Into what sort of thing?" Jeff demanded, clearly offended.

"Daddy figures," Britta supplied.

"No!" Annie squeaked. "Just, you know… older men," she finished lamely.

"And then we run into the Leonard problem all over again," Pierce noted.

"Hey! Leonard is old enough to be your _father_!" Jeff protested.

"Well, what was your problem with the idea?" Annie demanded.

"Slater," Britta supplied again.

"Um, actually, no," Jeff countered.

"Did you break up?" Britta asked quickly.

"Not exactly."

"Explain," Abed ordered.

Jeff knew he was taking mental notes to prepare for an upcoming episode of Community College Chronicles, but clarified nonetheless.

"She expressed an interest in a more open relationship. I didn't see things the same way," he stated simply.

"Wait… she wanted to see other guys on the side?" Britta gaped.

"Tough break, dude. That's the wrong kind of three-way," Troy said consolingly.

"Not a _three-way_, Troy! She just wanted to get extra _sex_ separately from Jeff," Annie corrected, saying 'three-way' and 'sex' quietly, as if they were bad words.

Pierce shook his head sadly.

"It's always difficult to hear a lady friend tell you that you aren't man enough for her, Jeffrey. Not that I'd know from experience. Pathetic, really."

Jeff scowled at him.

"What?" he exclaimed. "No! It wasn't that. I just didn't want… I just thought that we had something…"

"Special?" Shirley offered sympathetically.

Jeff frowned again.

"Okay, you know what? This is starting to sound dangerously like a Lifetime movie, and I'm _fine_. Really," he said shortly.

"Yeah, the Lifetime audience is the complete opposite of our core demographic," Abed agreed.

"So if Slater isn't the problem, what is?" Britta asked.

"I worry about how Annie might affect my image," Jeff admitted.

"What?!" Annie sputtered.

"Annie is all goodness and sweetness with a cherry on top. What could you possibly be worried about?" Shirley bristled.

"Exactly that!" Jeff exclaimed. "I'm going to look like the pervy older guy hanging around teenagers with the hopes of convincing the hot, sweet ones to _do it_ with me."

"Ugh," Shirley and Britta muttered at the same time.

"On the other hand, your description just made Fonzie analogy much stronger," Abed pointed out.

"Happy to help, buddy," Jeff said sarcastically.

"Or instead of the Fonz, maybe Matthew McConaughey's character in _Dazed and Confused_," Abed mused aloud.

"That's what I love about these high school girls, man," Troy said eagerly.

"I get older, they stay the same age," Abed and Troy finished together.

Shirley and Britta shuddered again.

"This is what I mean," Jeff noted.

"So, I guess that possibility's out," Britta concluded.

"Actually, I think that both of you are thinking about this the wrong way," Abed objected. "Everyone on campus already knows that Jeff and Annie kissed at the debate, and it was obvious to everyone watching that they have the smoldering chemistry of a Sam and Diane."

Jeff and Annie both looked as if they'd spotted something intensely interesting in the stains on the lunch table judging by the way they were staring at it.

"So I doubt anyone would find a relationship between the two of you completely surprising. And since Annie initiated the kiss, I doubt people would think that Jeff used his Fonzie moves to trick her into bed," Abed deduced.

"Bed, whoa, hey! Who said anything about bed?" Jeff stammered.

Abed tilted his head to the side.

"If you're fake dating, everyone's going to assume you two are sleeping together. I mean, does Jeff Winger seem like the type of guy to be satisfied with holding hands?" he asked.

"I'm not ready for sex with Jeff!" Annie blurted out.

Six startled faces turned towards her, and she stiltedly attempted to amend her outburst.

"Fake sex! With Jeff. Or anybody!"

"Hey, Annie," said a familiar voice.

Seven heads now turned to face Starburns, who had chosen this moment to show his heavily adorned face.

"Um. Hi," Annie said nervously.

"I brought you this delicious cup of Jell-o salad," Starburns announced, gallantly placing a plastic bowl full of some suspicious green ingredients in front of Annie.

"…thank you," Annie replied uncomfortably.

"I saw it in the lunch line and it made me think of you because it's a little tangy but mostly sweet. And it jiggles in all the right places," Starburns said poetically.

"That's it," Jeff broke in.

He stood and took a couple of steps forward until he was directly in front of Starburns.

"You can drop the chivalrous act, Sir Tokes–a-Lot. If anyone is going to give Annie creepy gelatin-based gifts, it's me," he snarled.

Starburns put his hands on his hips.

"Oh yeah, Winger? And why is that?" he challenged.

"Because Jeff and I are dating!" Annie shouted.

Suddenly she was standing behind Jeff and every single eye in the cafeteria was fixed on them. They nervously glanced at each other before adopting their best formidable looks and turning back to Starburns.

"Yeah!" Jeff affirmed.

Starburns sneered.

"Fine," he snapped. "But I'm taking my Jell-o back."

"Fine!" Annie retorted.

He snatched the plastic cup from the table and strode off.

Jeff and Annie slowly slid back into their seats. Everybody descended into silence. Finally, Abed spoke.

"Come by my dorm room after Spanish class; we need to rehearse," he said.

"Rehearse what?" Annie asked, bewildered.

"Your performance as a couple. It has to be believable."

Jeff felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

"What now?" he groaned, turning around to see Leonard, children's backpack and all.

"Thanks a lot, Winger. First you take all the macaroni, and now you're bogarting the sweet piece of ass I had my eye on! Who do you think you are? Fonzie?!"

Jeff turned away, slid down in his chair, and said only one word in reply.

"Ayyyyyyy."

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

"I still don't get why we're here," Jeff grumbled.

"You're here to make sure your performance is as authentic as possible," Abed explained, unconcerned by Jeff's negative attitude.

He gestured at his couch. Jeff reluctantly took a seat, but wasn't completely satisfied.

"I think acting lessons are a bit over the top. Won't this just make us look rehearsed?" he asked.

"Only if you have a bad director," Abed replied, wordlessly challenging Jeff to reply.

"Jeff, this has to look real! If people find out that you're only pretending to be my boyfriend, it will be the most embarrassing moment of my life," Annie said desperately. "And that includes the time that I finally plucked up the courage to audition for the lead in the school play, and the director called me on stage to improvise a romantic scene with the male lead. When I walked up to him, I was so nervous that I tripped and rammed my face into his so hard that I broke his nose! They wouldn't even let me on stage crew after that!"

She threw herself onto the couch next to Jeff and turned her glassy eyes on him. Jeff squeezed his own eyes shut.

"Fine," he bit out. "But I'm not doing it because of your maudlin Glenn Beck impersonation. I'm doing it because I can't withstand another disturbing encounter in which Starburns compares your body parts to snack foods."

"Good. It's settled then," Abed concluded. "The first thing we need to do is establish your nudity riders."

"What?!" Anne balked.

"They're the contracts that actors fill out to predetermine how much they're willing to show and do onscreen during romantic scenes," Abed explained calmly.

Jeff was tempted to grab Abed by the shoulders and shake him, but he settled for yelling.

"I can tell you EXACTLY how much nudity Annie and I will be doing. NONE!"

Abed nodded and held up his hands in defeat.

"Okay, 'nudity rider' was a bad choice of term. Of course you won't be doing any nudity. It would be completely against type for either of you to engage in that degree of PDA."

"Do people do that? _Naked_ PDA? In _public_?" Annie asked in a hushed voice, as if saying it too loudly added to the scandal of it all.

"I think the 'public' part is implied by the 'P' in PDA," Jeff noted.

Annie glared at him.

"I just mean that if we're going to run through your physical scenes, we should determine ahead of time exactly what types of physical acts you feel comfortable with," Abed assured them.

"None!" Annie squeaked.

Jeff's head jerked to the side to face Annie.

"_None?_" he repeated incredulously.

"This is a _fake_ relationship, Jeff. How much are we really expected to do?" Annie demanded.

"I'll take this one," Abed said, holding up a hand to stop Jeff from replying.

He turned back to Annie.

"Holding hands, hugs, an arm around the shoulder, a hand on the knee, on the thigh. It's a matter of degrees, and we need to decide now just how far is too far."

There was a brief pause. Abed's last suggestion was ringing in Jeff's ears. A hand on the thigh. He glanced down at his hand, which was resting inches from Annie's leg on the couch. If he just edged his fingertips a tiny bit to the right, they would brush the hem of her skirt.

"Hand holding sounds good, right Jeff?" Annie said, breaking Jeff out of his reverie.

"Yes. Good," he replied a bit to quickly.

"And maybe a hug before we leave at the end of the day," Annie suggested, a little more hesitantly.

"An arm around your shoulder in the hallway doesn't sound too weird," Jeff added.

"Good. How about kissing," Abed asked.

"No!" they replied simultaneously.

"Too soon, I think," Annie amended gently.

Abed nodded.

"Okay, well I had an idea for a study scene in the library I'd like to practice before we break for the day," he said.

Jeff looked at Annie and she shrugged.

"All right, I guess," he replied.

"This will give us a chance to work on the emotion. The choreography is the easy stuff," Abed noted.

'Choreography?' Jeff mouthed at Annie. She shrugged again.

"Okay. Jeff, you stay where you are. Annie, you're going to lie down with your head in Jeff's lap."

Annie and Jeff immediately froze. It was Jeff who snapped out of it first, and he attempted to appear casual and unconcerned. He turned to Annie, who was gripping one arm of the couch and looked as if she had ceased to breath.

"Annie?" Jeff prompted.

Annie nodded curtly and relaxed the slightest bit, but remained staring at the wall in front of them.

"Breath, Annie. Relaxed breathing is the key to a genuine performance," Abed advised.

"Also, _living_," Jeff added helpfully.

"Right, sorry," Annie said with a nervous laugh.

She stiltedly swung her feet around so that they hung off the edge of the sofa and gingerly lowered herself backwards, as if the couch cushions were a bed of nails. The weight of her entire upper body rested on her elbows for a moment. Then, with another nervous laugh, he settled the back of her head onto Jeff's thigh. Suddenly she was staring straight up at him. She nervously folded her hands across her stomach and shot him a nervous smile, which he mirrored.

"Annie, can you take out your barrette?" Abed asked.

"What?" Jeff choked.

Abed peered at him for a second before seeming to come to a decision.

"You're right. The scene has already started. This should be more organic. Jeff, you should remove the barrette," he decided.

Jeff tensed.

"Um…"

He looked down to see Annie smiling encouragingly, albeit anxiously.

"Right, okay," he muttered.

He reached down and gently tugged at the hair clip. Making little progress, he proceeded to pull a little harder. He saw Annie wince.

"There's a latch—ow—in the back," she offered.

Jeff let out a frustrated huff of air and attempted to find the latch, but succeeded only in tangling his fingers in Annie's hair, and Annie's hair around the clip.

"Ouch!" Annie yelped.

Jeff groaned as the latch disappeared completely into Annie's hair.

"Jeff, don't lose it now. You're interfering with the rhythm of the scene," Abed urged him.

"Well maybe if Annie didn't buy a barrette made by the fine people at Rubik's Inc. this wouldn't be a problem!" he snapped.

"Let me help," Annie said softly.

She reached up slipped her fingers in her hair, locating the clasp almost immediately. Jeff sighed in irritation and looked away, but looked back when he felt Annie's small hand on his. Rather than unclasp the barrette herself, she guided Jeff's hand to the latch and, with her thumb and index finger over his, pressed.

With a tiny _ping_, the barrette popped open. Annie smiled.

"There. The people at Rubik's need to work a little harder, I guess," she said with a smirk.

Jeff couldn't help it. He smiled back, tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth.

"Well played, Edison," he admitted.

Her hands fluttered back to stomach, and he very gently pulled the barrette from her hair. Jeff placed it on the arm of the sofa and looked up to see Abed examining them with an intensity that was unsetting.

"Now just sort of run your fingers through her hair with one hand and read this book with your free hand," Abed ordered, holding a book out.

"'_Scorsese on Scorsese_,'" Jeff read off the cover, arching an eyebrow.

"Just for effect. You'll be reading something different in the library," he explained.

Trying to remain as unruffled as possible, Jeff calmly placed his left hand in Annie's hair, and, resting his right arm on the back of the sofa, flipped open to Chapter 8: 'The Age of Innocence – A Personal Journey.'

He let Annie's wavy tresses drift between his fingers for a few moments before burying his hand more deeply in her hair. His fingers gently stroked her scalp as he read Scorsese's words about '_The Age of Innocence_.'

'_I was very taken by the story of the love between Newland Archer and Ellen Olensda, and the most interesting part of it for me was that they couldn't consummate their relationship. So throughout the film, there would be a kind of emotional and erotic tension.'_

And then Annie moaned. Well, it was more of a contented little sigh.

In any case, Jeff dropped his book.

Onto Annie's stomach.

"Oh!" she gasped.

"Sorry!" Jeff blurted.

He reached for the book. With his left hand. Which was still tangled in Annie's hair.

"Ow!" Annie squeaked, sitting up and pulling Jeff's hand to her head so that she could carefully remove it with minimal tugging.

Jeff buried his face in his free hand and mumbled, "Sorry," once more.

"It's okay," Annie said, aiming for cheerful but overshooting it a bit.

"All right, cut! Annie, good; Jeff, horrible," Abed declared.

"Hey! I'm trying here!" Jeff exclaimed.

Abed shook his head.

"The hesitation and uneasiness works for Annie. It fits with her character."

Jeff scowled.

"What character? She's a real person, Abed."

Abed looked at Annie, who was now in a seated position with '_Scorsese on Scorsese_' in her lap.

"She's young, she has very little romantic experience, and you're an older man. She would naturally exhibit a degree of apprehension with you," Abed reasoned.

Jeff's scowl deepened.

"Can we stop talking about how old I am?"

Abed ignored him.

"But you've had countless of romantic encounters, and up until your relationship with Professor Slater you rejoiced in your label as a playboy. This kind of adolescent bumbling makes no sense."

Jeff stammered for a moment, his mouth hanging open.

"I… look, all of that may be true, but if I was to date somebody like Annie, don't you think it would indicate character growth? First Slater, now Annie?" he attempted.

Abed turned his eyes skyward, pondering this statement.

"Hmm. Interesting. Assuming the relationship is very new, which it would be, you might be more cautious with someone like Annie," he surmised.

Jeff gave an exaggerated nod.

"Yes, exactly. The bumbling was a character choice. Totally on purpose," he said resolutely.

Abed directed his eyes back at Jeff.

"All right, let's try it again, keep the awkwardness. And switch places. I think I like this scene better with your head in Annie's lap."

Exchanging tight smiles, the pair reversed their positions, with Jeff reclining until the back of his head met with Annie's skirt. He made a show of readjusting to find the most comfortable position before letting out a long sigh.

Annie looked to Abed.

"Okay, let's have Jeff hold the book so that Annie can use both hands on Jeff," he commanded.

His wording caused Jeff's eyebrows to fly upwards, but Annie didn't skip a beat. She handed the book to Jeff, who decided to open to a safer chapter, and began gently stroking his hair. He looked up at her to find her blue eyes peering down at him.

"All right, Annie. I really need you to emote. Jeff is the new man in your life. You adore him. He's different from anybody you've ever liked: exciting, challenging, oddly sweet," Abed urged.

"Why 'oddly'?" Jeff asked.

"Shhh," Annie scolded.

But she didn't look the least bit put out. On the contrary, she was truly attempting to follow Abed's direction. An anxious smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her teeth nervously teased at her bottom lip. Her eyes softened as they traced the details of his features.

Jeff couldn't recall anyone ever looking at him like that before. Maybe his first real girlfriend. Crystal Stepheson. Summer camp. 1990. When Annie was only, oh that's right, _not even born_.

He clenched his eyes shut, trying not to think about things like that. Gradually, the soft motion of Annie's fingertips against his scalp began lulling him into a dreamlike state, and before he knew it, the sounds and sensations of the room were drifting away.

"Really, really good, you guys. Much better."

Abed's voice startled Jeff out of his stupor.

"Hmm?" he murmured.

"We're done for today. I suggest you hold hands as you leave. Try this exercise in the library tomorrow," Abed said, speaking like a doctor prescribing treatment.

"Thanks, Abed!" Annie chirped.

Jeff dazedly pulled himself into a seated position.

"Milord?"

He looked up to see Annie offering him a hand up.

"Oh, right," he said, shaking himself.

He took her hand and stood. It felt strange, standing hand in hand with Annie Edison in Abed's dorm room, but he shook the feeling off and proceeded to the door. Opening it, he gestured for her to exit before him.

"Milady," he announced.

"Oh, my barrette!" Annie recalled as she stepped into the hallway.

"I'll get it," Jeff said. "Meet you by the stairs?"

Annie nodded happily. Jeff reentered the room, and plucked Annie's hair clip from the arm of the sofa. He noticed that Abed was already furiously scribbling notes on a notepad.

"So, do you think we've got what it takes, boss?" he jokingly asked Abed.

Abed looked up from his notes.

"Now that I've got an angle on your performances, yes," he stated confidently.

"And what angle would that be?" Jeff asked, still smirking.

"Method acting," Abed replied.

Jeff frowned.

"Isn't that where the actors actually try to feel the emotions of their characters?" he asked.

"Exactly. And it's ideal where there are already emotions to draw from in real life relationships," Abed added.

The smirk disappeared from Jeff's face. Abed, misreading this, continued.

"Don't worry, Jeff. It worked for Scorsese in Raging Bull. It'll definitely work with you and Annie."

Jeff clenched his teeth and nodded. He strode out of the room and presented Annie with her barrette. She smiled and slipped her hand back into his. Jeff felt his heart skip a beat. He cursed under his breath.

Because really?

Screw Scorsese.


End file.
